Page 36 of Marriage Most Scandalous
“Such as?”
Sebastian shrugged. “Retrieving stolen valuables, righting wrongs, resolving differences, extracting innocents from incarceration. A little of this and that. I’ve become what you might call a mercenary. Now it’s your turn. Your attitude is rather defensive for a reunion, Denton. Why is that?”
Denton raked a hand through his black hair. There were actually a few gray hairs at his temples, which were not really noticeable unless you were looking closely. His amber eyes were bloodshot, which was very noticeable, and had dark circles under them. Denton’s eyes had never been quite as bright as Sebastian’s, more on the brown side. His skin was pale, too pale, as if he rarely went outdoors. There was a small scar on his cheek, another on his brow, neither of which had been there the last time Sebastian had seen him. All in all, Denton looked too dissipated by half, exhausted, like a man who overindulged his vices too frequently. He was a year younger than Sebastian, yet he actually looked like the elder brother now.
Denton finally sighed. “It’s just a shock, seeing you again. I never expected to.”
“Neither did I expect to see you again,” Sebastian said. Then offhandedly he added, “I find I’ve missed you.”
“Liar,” Denton almost snarled. “You never had time for me. We were never close.”
“I know. I’m sorry for that,” Sebastian said sincerely. “But you weren’t easy to get close to. You built your resentments too early.”
“Why in the bloody hell are you bringing that up? It’s done, under the bridge, as it were. You can’t change the past, Seb.”
“I suppose not,” Sebastian agreed. “But if that’s not causing your defensiveness, what is?”
Denton appeared incredulous. “Good God, you show up. That’s enough right there by itself, ain’t it? But then Father has to be carried in the house, hurt so bad he can’t even see straight. And Maggie married you. I still can’t believe that. You fall in the pigsty and still come out smelling like a bloody rose, don’t you? I’m having a hard time assimilating it all, and I was already a nervous wreck before you even got here. So what the hell did you expect, a laugh and a hug?”
“I didn’t expect to find that you’re in love with my wife, or married to Giles’s wife,” Sebastian said in a hard tone. “Where is that jade, anyway?”
Denton blanched at his bluntness but said, “Don’t come home after eleven years and start making assumptions, when you know nothing about what’s gone on here.”
“Then why don’t you tell me, and start with how you ended up married to the adulteress who instigated the duel that wrecked my life?”
“She didn’t instigate anything,” Denton said. “She swore that you—”
“She lied,” Sebastian cut in.
“Be that as it may, you weren’t here to say otherwise, and she managed to convince me at the time. She was lonely and depressed living with Cecil, who was totally shattered after Giles’s death. I had begun visiting her to cheer her up.”
“It took marriage to cheer her up, I suppose?”
Denton blushed. “No, I was just going to set her up as my mistress, and did, but—things happen. She was enceinte.”
Sebastian raised a brow, actually surprised. “You have a child?”
Denton’s complexion reddened even more vividly. “No, she lost it.”
“Of course,” Sebastian said dryly.
Denton glared at him. “That was my own response, if you must know. But I’ve made my bed. I’m dealing with it as best I can.”
Which didn’t seem to be at all, Sebastian concluded, but he’d been harsh enough, so didn’t say so. “You mentioned already being a nervous wreck. Why?”
Denton sighed. “Because Juliette is in London shopping. Happens every time she goes. She spends atrocious amounts of money when she’s there, frivolously. Father goes through the roof when he gets the bills.”
“Then why don’t you go with her to put a curb on her extravagance?”
“Because when I do, we end up causing a scene that titillates the gossips for months. Father objects to that even more.”
“One of your fights?”
“I see Maggie has filled you in.”
“Hardly. She didn’t say what you fight about.”
“The question should be what we don’t fight about. That list would be much shorter.”
